When Russian soldiers descended into the Ukrainian province of Crimea last month, many observers rightly rebuked the move as a precursor to eventual annexation. They condemned the deployment as illegal, dangerous, and capable of sparking a much larger conflict. Still, some of these spectators took things a step further and saw an opportunity to condemn what they observed as an intrinsic duplicity to the global peace movement.

The loudest participants argue that the antiwar left shows its hypocrisy by not getting on the streets to protest Vladimir Putin’s aggression. They ask: if hundreds of thousands of people showed up on the streets of Western cities to protest the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, then why can’t Ukrainians get the same show of international support?

Take Nick Cohen, writing for the conservative British magazine The Spectator, who says that Ukrainians “should be glad that they do not have the support of the relativist left” because of its “pliable” politics. Or take The National Post’s Andrew Coyne, who goes on to condemn the apparently spineless left for being “pacifists” who have become the “PR reps” of tyrants.

There’s no doubt that Russia’s actions amount to an illegal encroachment on Ukraine’s sovereignty. Historian Timothy Snyder explains that Putin’s broader strategic objective is to have Ukraine join something called the “Eurasian Union,” which is essentially a group of authoritarians and dictators banding together to preserve their regional hegemony.

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That sounds very unappetizing, but unlike what Cohen and Coyne seem to suggest, just because millions of leftists aren’t filling the streets doesn’t then mean they all endorse Russian expansionism. In fact, there has been quite enough knee-jerk moralism and grand, sweeping rhetoric already escalating Ukraine’s crisis. The peace movement’s resources are limited, and it’s simply not possible to have colossal protests whenever a conflict arises. Not to mention that it’s probably not in Ukraine’s interests to amplify anti-Russia messaging right now. It’s also hard to imagine any commentator, Cohen and Coyne included, showing the same level of outrage if the left failed to protest for, say, the island nation of Palau, if any of its larger neighbors decided to invade it. This kind of selectivity says much more about the ideological framework through which commentators like Cohen look at the world than it does about the left.

Ukraine, of course, is not Palau. The aggressor here is Russia, a chief geopolitical actor in the world whose global agenda doesn’t always align with that of the U.S. and its closer allies. Palau and its neighbors are not symbols of a larger global rivalry in the way that Ukraine and Russia are. Russia still symbolizes opposition to the “Western world” for many in the American political establishment who prefer to remain stubbornly connected to the outdated narratives of the Cold War. As the Soviet Union was perceived to impede the progress of liberal capitalism and democracy throughout the world, Putin’s Russia now disrupts the “unipolar moment,” when the U.S. should be free to project its overwhelming power for global goodness. Or so the (neoconservative) story goes.

In truth, Ukraine is caught between this broader, global rivalry. The admirable impulse of its people to attain a more just country is dwarfed by the ideological myopia of both Russia and the U.S. In the melodramatic narratives that have come to dominate the way the mainstream discusses this crisis, Ukraine’s democratic will should be backed by the ultimate purveyor of freedom in the world, the United States. With its help, plucky little Ukraine will escape Putin’s clutches and go on to enjoy the perks of the European Union, and maybe even NATO.

But reality is different. In the real world, Viktor Yanukovych’s Ukraine has long been a strategic partner of Russia. It was a country still within Putin’s limited sphere of regional influence. If it goes, then Russia loses. Russian interests are at stake, and so it must act to protect them. This, above all, remains the primary impediment to Ukraine’s democratic goals. Did the U.S. State Department not recognize it? If it did, then why did it not apply a reality-based diplomacy that reminded the Euromaidan movement to avoid making Russia feel like a loser in all this?

As John Mearsheimer notes in his New York Times op-ed, Russia “drew a line in the sand” when NATO announced in 2008 that Ukraine and Georgia will become members. The Russians already watched Poland and the Baltic states accede. Ukraine was simply a step too far. Putin, as it turns out, would rather not tolerate NATO expansion right up to his doorstep. An excuse to act was all he needed. Euromaidan’s success in throwing out Yanukovych provided that excuse.

Now, Ukraine’s sovereignty remains violated. Instead of advising caution, the U.S. took a more activist approach, symbolized by Victoria Nuland’s handing out of cookies to protestors in Kiev’s Independence Square, the epicenter of the Euromaidan movement. As U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Nuland decided not to warn the protestors that they may be making a strategic error by forcing Yanukovych out instead of voting him out. The U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, also failed to take a more strategic approach, instead calling the ouster of Yanukovych “a day for the history books.” The failure to see the Russia’s reaction to all this as incredibly relevant to Ukraine’s chances of maintaining a sovereign, democratic state has a lot to do with where the crisis is today.

An establishment still nostalgic for the thinking and rhetoric of the Cold War may present Ukraine’s well-being as the West’s primary concern. But the inability to see all this from Russia’s perspective has ruined Ukraine’s chances for a smooth transition out of Russia’s immediate sphere of influence. This is the same kind of naïve and sentimental idealism that characterizes many of America’s ill-conceived forays into the world, including those in the Middle East. It is of course directly related to the neoconservative view of global influence: project American power, whatever it takes. Vladimir Putin is playing the same game, responding in kind to the aggressive expansionism of Russia’s rivals.

The truth, of course, is that plenty of people have expressed distaste for all aggressive interventions, be it by Russia or the United States, or anyone else for that matter. In addition to a Crimea firmly in Putin’s clutches, the Ukrainian interim government and major political parties (who will contend in a general election next month) are chock-full of candidates with their own records of corruption. The far-right Svoboda party now has five ministerial posts in this interim regime, including deputy prime minister and prosecutor general. The leader of the neo-nazi Right Sector party, Dmytro Yarosh, is now Ukraine’s deputy national security chief.

Now hawkish Cold Warriors within the United States are calling for NATO forces to be deployed into Western Ukraine, or at least on it’s border with Poland. U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe, has been given a mandate to draw up plans to counter Russia’s move and “reassure NATO members nearest Russia that other alliance countries have their back.” Breedlove says that he wouldn’t “write off the involvement of any nation, to include the United States.”

If that happens, Russia will almost certainly declare and execute an official invasion into eastern Ukraine. What follows such a disaster is anyone’s guess.

Steven Zhou is a writer and analyst based in Toronto, Canada. His writings have also appeared on The Globe and Mail, Embassy Magazine, and Al Jazeera English, among other publications.

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8 Responses to The Dangers of Naïve Diplomacy

“There’s no doubt that Russia’s actions amount to an illegal encroachment on Ukraine’s sovereignty.”

Really, there isn’t? It’s amazing what facts must be completely ignored in order to make that statement with such confidence. Such articles seem to ignore the legal agreement with Ukraine to have a certain number of troops in the country. I’m not so sure Russia even increased its troop strength in Sevastoplol. Yanukovich was forced to run for his life. I see “thrown out” as a euphemism. I also see no mention of the valid February 21 agreement that was ignored and the violence of protestors towards unarmed police who were forced to have a limited response. I think that backdrop, the elected president fleeing for his life to Russia, and the complete disregard for law and order by the self-appointed leadership and its radical enforcers on the streets of Ukraine is an important part of any discussion about Russia’s reaction. Russia has shown incredible restraint. I am quite sure there would be many more dead and suffering if the roles were reversed and the West was playing Russia’s role. Illegal encroachment on Ukraine’s sovereignty, indeed.

I am a citizen of the United States, not the Russian Federation. The actions of the US government, given that it is a democratic republic, are partly my responsibility, the actions of the Russian government are not.

My politics, including my preference for peace, center on that distinction, and similar such distinctions. I am more likely to protest what the city government of New York (where I live) does than the actions of the city government of Boston, the policies of the State government of New York than those of the State government of Massachusetts, and the actions of the US national government than those any other national government. I think that position is more or less self justifying, and needs no elaborate defense.

And, it seems to me, that charges of hypocrisy are better founded against folks who are pro war when the US is making it without claims of self defense or UN authorization, but who now wrap themselves up in international law when it comes to judging Russia’s actions. Similarly, folks who seemed to scoff at the notion of law and order when it came to the Maidan rebellion in Kiev are now conveniently all about maintaining it in Eastern and Southern Ukraine.

Arguing for stricter standards on others than you are willing to accept on yourself is hypocritical, the contrary (ie trying to abide by rules that you do not vigorously promote as the guide to the actions of others) is not, or, at least, less so. And shifting shamelessly, as the neo cons and lib internationalists have done, on the issue of law and order in another country, based solely on whose ox is being gored, is even less consistent and defensible.

Bilateral USA trade with Russia is 1/10 that of the European Union. Short of military action, the USA has little real leverage over Russia. Any American proposing military action over Russia’s actions in the Ukraine is insane — this is not Nazi Germany 1930s.

I certainly don’t think the US needs to dance up to the UN every time to justify its actions of self defence. The problem with Iraq was they were no threat, hadn’t engaged in any behaviors related to 9/11 and there was no credible evidence that they had WMD.

This article is missing the point of the current scenario. Leftests were all to happy to encourage a revolution in a state of a dully elected government and there seemed no impediment to changing those players next election should the populace have been disgruntled.

It seems that this author has not noticed the left has been spurring revolution in tenuous stable regions in a free wheeling attempt to purge all of the old players, including their opponents here in the US. Examining whether leftists should be marching in the street to protest that which themselves are responsible for — that sounds like the kind of naivete’ you intend to address.

I like naivete’. But that is not the same thing as hypocrisy and careless strategic games of tic tac toe or merely stirring the pot —

I the above with this caveat: perhaps that is the point of these events. To deliberately test the waters to probe what others might do. Perhaps, in some dark cavaran there’s a group of players that on the moment of Russia’s move, breathed a quiet , ah. “Ok, now we know just how much provocation it takes.”

All politics is local. Protests against Russia in London or New York would not so much be a message to Putin, but a message to the West (meaning the United States) to “do something!” militarily, and nobody wants that.

The reality is that nobody likes what’s going on there, but it’s also very apparent that the West has virtually no real options short of fighting a war against Moscow by proxy, or a direct war, and nobody wants that.